President Obama said at an international conference that “we’re not acting fast enough,” challenging leaders and citizens to reduce emissions to “protect the one planet that we’ve got while we still can.”

On Aug. 27, Rwanda’s Ministry of Infrastructure government announced it has leased 22 small hydropower projects located in the northern and western provinces to private investors to spur the country’s hydroelectric energy program. According to energy experts at the ministry, the plants would add about 24.6 MW of hydroelectric energy to the national grid.

In the decade since Katrina, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service have invested in new satellites and computer modeling technology that have significantly improved their ability to forecast and track hurricanes.

In a July 1 Federal Register notice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presented plans to control greenhouse gases (GHG) from aircraft. In August, in Washington, DC, EPA held a hearing on its proposal. About 40 people attended, with 14 providing comments.

PHG Energy (PHGE) is preparing to file with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation an environmental permit to build a biomass gasification plant in eastern Tennessee, a PHGE spokesperson said in an Aug. 29 interview.